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Google announced today a new initiative called Project Shield that is intended to protect web sites whose free speech may be attacked. A common attack on the Internet are Distributed Denial of Service, or DDOS, attacks that are used to take a site offline due to criminal intent, for political reasons, or due to the nature of the content on the site. Attackers perform a DDOS attack by flooding a particular site or computer with huge amounts of connections. These connections cause the site to go offline as it is unable to handle the amount of requests being sent to it or because their Internet connection becomes so clogged noone can reach them.

Google's new Project Shield is designed to allow web sites serving news, human rights or elections-related content to take advantage of the advanced infrastructure of the Google networks so that they are protected from DDOS attacks. In addition, testers will be able to take advantage of Google's Page Speed Service, which will enable the content of your site to be delivered more quickly and efficiently. If your web site qualifies, you can sign up to become a "trusted testers" of Google's Project Shield. If you are selected you will be required to change your domain's DNS servers and possibly your web site's IP address in order to full benefit from this service. In addition to the DDOS mitigation services, Google is also offering their Page Speed Service

Just like other DDOS mitigation services such as Cloud Flare and Prolexic, Project Shield will most like use a Reverse Proxy configuration to protect your servers from these types of attacks. In this configuration a user would connect to Google's web servers, which would then retrieve the requested content from your web server. This allows you to hide the IP address of your web site from potential attacks, while still being able to serve content. As the traffic will be filtered through Google's network, you get the extra benefit of Google filtering out other known attacks directly on their server before they ever reach your own web server.

Regarding Cryptodan's comment, I agree 100%. My laptop is under complete control of microsoft and google. I have re-installed my OS twice this month, to no avail. I am under their watch from using my free speech on certain forums. Life as we knew it has changed. I see the freedom of the internet to soon disappear. Thanks Cispa!

So does that mean Google gets to choose who has the right to free speech? And what if your political views conflict with that of Google, will they still give access to the service? If it's not unrestricted then isn't it just propaganda.

"Net neutrality is a dead man walking. The execution date isn’t set, but it could be days, or months (at best). And since net neutrality is the principle forbidding huge telecommunications companies from treating users, websites, or apps differently — say, by letting some work better than others over their pipes — the dead man walking isn’t some abstract or far-removed principle just for wonks: It affects the internet as we all know it."

I know it's a bit off topic but given the other postings, I just wanted to toss my hat in the ring and say that I just switched over to DuckDuckGo this morning because Google seems to be making some moves that just don't seem to feel right.

As for the loss of Net Neutrality...I guess all one can do is read everything they can get their hands on and try to stay informed as to what is going on in the background. And there appears to be a lot going on in the background.

People have been talking about the possibility of this and worse for a while,maybe if they do it,it'll go to the supreme court?,

can we expect transparency and a fair and level playing field from corporate business that has political agendas as part of their mandate?Should it bother us that Googles tracking us incessantly and Microsoft lets the Feds read are E- Mails etc?Probably.